Childish Gambino Wishes He Were White in New Twitter Poem Inspired by Ferguson Police, Criticism

In light of the recent tragic shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown and the subsequent police state and riots in Ferguson, Missouri, "3005" rapper Childish Gambino expressed his thoughts about himself, race, the music industry and police in a new poem on Twitter, stating that "I wanna be a white rapper."

He wrote:

"'childish Gambino is a white rapper'
i wanna be a white rapper.
i wanna be so white im the biggest rapper of all time.
i wanna be so white I can have a number one song with cursing and parents are fine with it.
i wanna be so white and so big i get eat dinner with the koch brothers.
i hope I'm so big and white i can go to clippers games and it not be a statement.
i hope I'm so white they let my friend out of jail sooner.
i hope I'm so big and white my cousin wasn't shot and stabbed twice in the neck twice last month.
i wanna be so big. so white.
i wanna be so big and so white that white dads feel comfortable sending their daughters, who are home for the summer from Stanford to my show.
and after the performance they come hang with me on my bus and we smoke and then we fuck to young dro.
and she holds my face in her hands and her eyes roll back in her head.
then she goes home and her dad says 'how was the show?' and she says 'it was fun. they had lasers.'
i hope i become so big and and so white that G-Eazy will say 'd--n, this n---a is white' and everyone will agree and nod.
i want to be so big and white that people are scared. 'what if this spreads? what if everyone starts to get big and white? what if this works for everyone and everyone can experience this whiteness and this bigness?'
i hope I become too big and too white.
but i am just a black male. i am a n---a"

Gambino's Twitter poem results not only from the Ferguson shooting and protests but from criticism from hip-hop fans and the African-American community that he's too "white," something he references in numerous songs. Today (Aug. 14), Gambino explained his Twitter poem/rant was a result of a discussion he had with his mother.

"I've been threatened by police twice this year, hand on holster. 'and i'm childish gambino," he wrote. "so when someone calls me a 'white rapper', I wanna make sure they understand i don't have all the benefits."

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Childish Gambino